1. Field of the Invention
My invention provides a polishing and scrubbing pad of the type used with electric or propane fueled internal combustion engine polishing machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, numerous structures of polishing pads for use with floor polishing machines are known in the art. These pads conventionally have a central aperture for attaching them to the undersurface of a polishing machine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,174 (Rones), U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,567 (Rones) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,545 (Boy) are representative of the conventional rotary type cleaning and polishing pad. The conventional circular floor pads, such as in the Boy patent, do not present cutting surfaces to cut dirt and wax from the floor and have no means for removing any loosened dirt or wax. Accordingly, such circular pads tend to glaze over faster when the dirt and wax penetrate up into the pad and glaze over the abrasive, thereby preventing the pad from performing effectively. Additionally, such conventional pads create a great amount of drag on the polishing machine which often results in overheating and consequent overloading of electrical circuits.
While the polishing pad of the Rones '174 patent provides a plurality of apertures in the pad in order to reduce drag, there are no cutting edges to cut the wax or dirt away from the floor, nor is there any means for slinging the debris away and out from under the pad.
The Rones '567 patent teaches a polishing and scrubbing pad which provides cutting edges for cutting old wax from the floor. However, since the pad is comprised of a plurality of segments which are held together by a connector comprising a plate and a plurality of rods, the resulting structure is bulky and complicated and requires a number of steps to manufacture. Moreover, the segmented pad of Rones '567 has no provision for slinging the debris away and out from under the pad once any dirt or wax has been cut away from the floor.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,417,420 (Rock) and 4,086,068 (Hedin) show various designs of elements cut from a continuous strip of material.